


The Knight of Ren

by NebulousMistress



Series: Let Slip the Hounds of the First Order [13]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Elements of an Eldritch Force, Gen, Monster Armitage Hux, Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Dark Side of the Force (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:14:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29162511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NebulousMistress/pseuds/NebulousMistress
Summary: Kylo Ren, rightful master of the Knights of Ren, has been summoned to Ilum by his Master Snoke. Snoke has a task for him, just a simple thing. Inspect theMaletrix.Alone.
Series: Let Slip the Hounds of the First Order [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1698706
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17





	The Knight of Ren

**Author's Note:**

> This story doubles as a [Bad Things Happen Bingo](https://nebulousmistress.tumblr.com/post/616692789320810496/here-is-your-card-for-bad-things-happen-bingo) prompt fill for Deadly Game.

There it was.

The bright glow of Ilum filled the viewport of the lambda shuttle. The sacred planet lay violate and scarred. A vast trench encircled the entire planet, braced open by dull durasteel plates with doors that betrayed the presence of tunnels into the planet’s crust. A vast hole punctured into the trenches, descending straight down into the planet’s molten heart. The red glow within spoke of the battle between magma under pressure and the strength of metal and forcefields.

Ilum was why he was here.

Kylo Ren answered the summons of his Master Snoke. The Knights of Ren followed his lead, as they had ever since Kylo killed the old blind Ren in a fight that Kylo was not proud of. A blind man should not have been so difficult to kill in a fair fight, or even an unfair fight. Even so, the Knights of Ren held no grudge. The Ren did not begrudge a death earned in battle regardless of Kylo’s pride. The Ren accepted that death and moved on.

Kylo still had issues with the philosophy. It was a change from the old Jedi books or anything he knew from, well, from before. But the other Knights were willing to teach.

Now Master Snoke summoned him and the Knights of Ren to this violated world. Kylo had been told what would happen to this world, this planet sacred to the Jedi and the Sith. The planet was alive, its core a solid presence in the Force. That presence needed to be controlled. Kylo had managed to bleed his own kyber crystal to create his admittedly imperfect crossguard lightsabre, he would be called upon to do it again. And again. As much as it took. Though where it would end Master Snoke was unwilling to say.

But first, Master Snoke had a task for Kylo Ren. It was a simple task. A Star Destroyer sat in drydock, its construction nearly finished. The ship was enclosed and pumped full of atmosphere, the skin and superstructure complete. Programming and weapons systems were incomplete. The ship’s computer was not yet fully ‘awakened’, whatever that meant. The reactor sat cold, the ship was powered through umbilicals connecting it to the drydock. The _Maletrix_ was not yet assigned to a commander. Kylo Ren’s task today was to inspect the ship before its reactor could be brought online.

Alone.

If the _Maletrix_ met his needs, Master Snoke had hinted he might be generous. 

The Star Destroyer was far vaster than any he’d ever studied. Twice as long as the Imperial variants, nearly big enough to be a dreadnought all on its own. Its profile sat low, the bridge kept protected underneath the dorsal armor plating. The vast blackened shadow was difficult to focus on, its shape best inferred by the stars it occulted. Despite its size this was a stealth vessel, built to drop into a system without warning and wreak utter devastation.

It was beautiful. The giant engines in the back looked impressive even dark and unpowered. The vast reactor in the middle was nearly big enough to power a Death Star if properly fueled and pushed to full power. Giant cannons in its belly lay dark and waiting to strike, like serpents in burrows. Thousands of tiny turbolasers dotted the entire ship, so small compared to the bulk of the ship that they might have been hairs on an insect’s armor.

Kylo Ren wanted it. Such a massive dark ship would be a fitting chariot. As dark as the Dark Side itself, the stars blotted out behind as his _Maletrix_ blotted out the sun and rained total destruction onto a target.

He didn’t **need** it. The Knights of Ren had never taken on such a target, never needed a ship this size. They worked best on foot, darting in and out and never seen again. But he wanted it. He wanted to swoop onto an unsuspecting target like an ion storm. He wanted to feel a ship of this size and power responding to his touch. He wanted to breathe air untainted by the fumes of an overclocked engine.

The giant hangar doors in the _Maletrix’s_ belly hung open, the glow of the forcefield indicating the ship was safe, powered and pressurized. Ready for him. Kylo Ren guided his shuttle into the hangar and landed.

He stepped down the ramp into an empty ship.

TIE racks stood empty, the sheer number of racks betraying their capacity. Two full wings of TIEs could dock here, all of them under his command. There was space for ground transports and ground assault vehicles, multiple AT-ATs. Kylo imagined the thousands of stormtroopers who would stand at attention here, all awaiting his orders. His very whims! There was nobody to see him as he slowly spun in the empty hangar, arms thrown from his sides as he extended his senses into the empty ship. He wanted to Feel the whole thing, to know it inside and out before anyone else could.

Kylo Ren sighed in satisfaction as he left the hangar behind. He couldn’t stay here all cycle, he had the rest of the ship to explore.

But why did he feel like he was being watched?

*****

The reactor sat cold and empty. Hypermatter and helium-3 tanks both sat empty and unfinished. A deactivated droid still stood inside one, a tank of spray sealer strapped to its back and the nozzle lowered. Painted stripes of sealer had dried, the droid’s feet glued to the tank floor in a centimeter thick layer of sealant.

Kylo Ren shuddered as he closed that tank. 

Red and yellow emergency lights ran along the edges of catwalks and the seams between deck and bulkhead. The vast engine rooms extended in every direction into darkness. Red and yellow lights traced patterns among the pipes and power conduits. There was no activity from the reactor which left Kylo disoriented. He couldn’t tell which direction he’d come from or where he’d been or even where he was going.

Kylo closed his eyes against the darkness and let his senses extend just as Kuruk Ren had taught him. He knew the ship was silent, empty, he was alone. Even the droids were gone, the only one he’d seen was in no shape to escape its tank prison. That made it easier to push aside the odd feeling of being watched.

That way.

Kylo followed the red and yellow lights down the catwalk and then up an access ladder. A catwalk transitioned to a corridor and he looked back over the cavernous engine room.

He couldn’t see much in the darkness. Red and yellow light lent a fiery quality to the gloom. He could make out a pattern from here, stations around the reactors and running up and down the engines. Bulkheads separated the engine compartments from each other, airlock doors in each bulkhead in case of engine failure or decompression or reactor failure or any of a dozen accidents Kylo could imagine happening in a place like this. He pushed aside his imaginings. They weren’t visions from the Force, only his own imagination.

Same as the shifting movement of lights below as something stalked along the catwalk.

Nothing was here on this ship with him. He was alone. Any movement must be his imagination. Or maybe mynocks.

Or nothing at all.

He left the engine room to find flight simulators. A pilot’s barracks. Recreation areas. So near the reactor, though. It seemed a strange place for a Star Destroyer to keep their pilots unless…

No. It didn’t make sense. A TIE wing wasn’t meant to fly so close to their parent ship. There would be no reason to acclimate a pilot to how their ship’s reactor felt.

That was one thing he would change, if Master Snoke was generous. Kylo Ren would move the pilots away from the reactor. Maybe toward the bow of the ship, as far from the reactor as possible.

He found the secondary battle bridge in the exact center of the _Maletrix_ , tucked away in the most protected part of the ship and surrounded by creche barracks. Blank holoscreens lined the walls just like the viewports of the bridge, likely set up to display the exact same information. He wasn’t sure he understood exactly why a ship this size needed to hide its war bridge so far from the battle. He led from the fore, waded into battle alongside his Knights. His sabre heralded his entrance, making him a target. He wasn’t one to cower in the middle of a ship surrounded by children.

Another thing he would change. The war bridge shouldn’t be hidden away among children. A true commander would be on the real bridge.

Kylo stood alone on the war bridge, his hands resting on the railing that separated the secondary commander from the rest of the crew. For a moment he could imagine it full of life, officers shouting information from the sensor pits. He could almost hear it…

He **could** hear it.

Officers shouted from the pits. Holoscreens showed a planet below and a swarm of outdated A-wings flown in a sloppy pattern. A display over his right eye showed tactical information as the enemy ships swarmed around them, peppering the hull with ineffective shots. He felt like he knew what the primary commander would do before it happened, shouting his own orders to compliment what the _Maletrix_ then did. With both bridges active there was no loss of time of efficiency, orders seemingly carried out before either commander could think of them.

Then the moment was gone and Kylo gripped the railing. His legs wobbled, his chest tight as he blinked in the dark war bridge. The screens remained dark. The sensor pits were quiet. The ship was silent.

The Force sang in this place, curled around knots in time and pulsing with the kyber used to augment the _Maletrix's_ weapons. It sang loud enough that his vision wasn’t even of himself. He knew that without a doubt.

Kylo shook himself as he pulled his lightsabre and stepped out of the war bridge. The Force was strong in this place, loud and turbulent. He didn’t like it.

And still there was something there.

*****

Kylo Ren held his lightsabre aloft in the nearly infinite darkness. The emergency lights glimmered so far in the distance they were useless. His own warbling red blade didn’t seem to help matters. 

It was a firing range.

Holoemitters lined the edges of walls that stretched a full kilometer from end to end. Kylo didn’t even know snipers could train indoors, he thought they required a planet, but this ‘kilometer range’ claimed otherwise. The range was wide enough that it might even be used for much more than just sniper training. A full assault and ambush scenario could be simulated here with holograms and droids and more equipment he no longer doubted the First Order could provide.

Kylo’s footsteps were swallowed by the kilometer range, the walls too far to properly echo as he slowly walked down the range’s length. This even more than the engine room made him realize just how truly **massive** the _Maletrix_ really was. The ship was larger than many settlements, a generational ship capable of raising children to be the next generation of Stormtroopers and officers. It would never have to end.

The idea struck him that the First Order meant to outlast the New Republic. Given what he saw here, it might succeed. If every Resurgent-class vessel was a self-sufficient city-state capable of maintaining itself and its population like a settlement? In a monstrous stealth ship nearly impossible to track visually? Kylo wondered what other hidden talents a ship like this might possess.

He shivered and looked around. He could have sworn he saw something. But there was nothing there.

The Force was knotted around this place, turbulent and twisting in on itself. It inspired his senses to play tricks on him. That must be it.

He hadn’t seen a pair of green eyes watching him.

He was alone on this ship. Master Snoke had assured him it was so. There was nothing here.

Kylo Ren closed his eyes and reached out with the Force, his senses stretching out to touch whatever lurked in the shadows. He felt the low hum of the power umbilicals feeding the ship, swirls of power among the kyber that amplified the giant ventral cannons, a single whisper of hunger…

Kylo’s eyes snapped open even as a door opened and something low slunk out.

He wasn’t alone.

*****

Kylo’s lightsabre burned hot in his hand as he stalked the corridor. White letters shimmered iridescent next to each door in a code that Kylo did not yet know. He carried no code cylinders, he had no rank in the First Order and therefore no official access. He had no need for code cylinders, the Imperial-style locks nothing more than one of a few simple fractals. A twist of his thoughts opened any lock he focused on, a wave of his hand causing the door to slide open.

He stalked with his shoulders out and his head low, his sabre held before him as both light and weapon. He filled the corridor with his presence, a silent warning to whatever lurked in the darkness around him. He was a powerful Force user and a Knight of Ren. He was the master of the Knights of Ren, a warrior skilled enough to slay the previous Ren in single combat.

His lightsabre warbled and spat, the crystal beginning to overheat.

He should acquire a new crystal. Ilum was right there, its caves somewhat intact from what Uncle Lu-- from what he’d been told before. Even with the First Order in control of the planet he could surely force his way into the caves to pick a crystal of his own choosing. Still, pride stayed his hand. This crystal, cracked though it was, was his own. It chose him on Dantooine. Even knowing what would become of him and it, it chose him. That had to count for something.

Kylo slid open a door. Bright white light flooded his eyes and the corridor behind him. A vast observation deck along the bow of the _Maletrix_ offered a picturesque view of Ilum below. The planet shone with such bright white light that Kylo could extinguish his overheating lightsabre. He hooked the weapon to his belt and stepped inside.

It was a mess hall of sorts. A broad kitchen in the back wall stood empty and cold. The appliances and food dispensers would never be this clean again. The pantry was empty, not even shelving to delineate what would go where. The large empty dining room stood without furniture, none of the expected tables or chairs or even the benches he might expect considering some of his father’s-- considering the stories he’d heard before.

But it was bright. Ilum’s bright light cast stark shadows in the kitchen and below the edges of the viewports. There was light here, more than enough to see by. Enough light that the red and yellow emergency lights along the seam between deck and bulkhead were overwhelmed.

Almost.

Kylo Ren looked closely at the strip of emergency lighting. He expected red from a largely human-based organization like the First Order. But yellow? He wondered why.

He pulled away, back out into the middle of the room, and sat down on the floor.

Unease pulled at his insides, doubt creeping across his mind. Despite Master Snoke’s insistence, he was not alone on the _Maletrix._ There was something here, something he did not trust. He pressed that doubt down, doubt was the enemy of one’s connection to the Force. Doubt would not help him.

Kylo tried clearing his mind, opening himself to the ebb and flow of the Force around him. He’d already done it inadvertently on the war bridge, the future of the _Maletrix_ and her commanders laid before him.

A chill fell over him, crawling up his arms from his hands. That chill settled in his chest and he shivered before his awareness began to fall away.

The Force was a knotted, turbulent cascade. It flowed in swirls around him, pulling on his hair and clothes and lightsabre as it tried to sweep him up into the flow. Kylo drifted in it, his senses expanding as he reached out to touch every little mote that drifted along with him.

He could feel the crystals of Ilum in the weapons systems, each one a different note in the same single song. He could feel the echo of the minds of so many technicians flitting in and out as the ship was built. A note of white hot anger lurked in the past but he couldn’t feel anything more than a scandalized sense of ‘you’ve gone too far’.

A breath of heat across his neck.

Kylo nearly snapped out of his own senses but instead he latched onto that heat, reaching in with both hands to grab hold of the feeling and follow it.

Whatever it was, it was monstrous. He felt a long lurking Shadow that dripped in darkness. It left sticky tar paw prints on the deck of the ship, tar that evaporated to stain the air with its miasma. The Dark Side of the Force had tainted this thing, whatever it was, twisting it into something different. Something more. Something hungry.

No. No it didn’t… It was worse than that. This thing hadn’t been twisted. It had always been hungry, been different. Been more. Instead this thing somehow… twisted the Dark Side into this? But that didn’t make sense!

Kylo Ren opened his eyes and his breath stopped.

He wasn’t alone.

Something lurked in the shadows of the kitchen. Two tiny points of light hovered near the deck, eyes watching him. Eyes that blinked.

Kylo reached for his sabre. He projected a feeling of menace, flooding the Force around him with a sense of his own prowess. A low hiss was his answer as those eyes lowered and a Shadow behind began to wave.

This was the dark Shadow he’d felt before. It was a monster, all spikes and tail and the Dark Side dripping from its flanks to pool on the floor. Its crest dripped with blood, its jaws wide with titanium teeth. Its eyes glowed solid green, hungry and calculating and full of terrible intelligence.

Kylo could hear it, hissing amidst a low snuffling sound. It was Scenting him.

He activated his sabre, holding the hot blade before him as he slowly got to his feet. If the thing moved he was ready for it. He would kill whatever this thing was and then he would have answers from his Master.

The sabre guttered and then went dark and the thing leapt forward.

Kylo reached out with the Force and tossed it back into the kitchen. He heard the crash of ruined appliances and the roar of something taken by surprise. It was all of the opening he needed.

He retreated out into the corridor and willed the door shut. He even activated the locking fractal.

With only the emergency lights the corridors of the _Maletrix_ were nearly unrecognizable. Still Kylo picked a direction and tore down the hall, running to put some distance between himself and whatever Dark monster that was behind him. He ran until he realized he had no idea where he was. He didn’t know where any of these corridors led. The reactor wasn’t active so he couldn’t even feel his way toward the engine room. He didn’t even have a reliable weapon.

He did not want to admit he was afraid. He’d faced down worse than this before. A nagging voice in the back of his head reminded him he’d never been alone during any of those previous ‘befores’. The voice sounded suspiciously like his Uncle Lu--, no, like his previous master.

He tried to push the fear away but it kept coming back, bubbling up in the forefront of his mind. It was shameful. Fear was beneath him. Fear was weakness. Fear was--

Fear was a passion of the Dark Side. This monster that stalked him was a creature of the Dark Side. It wasn’t a weakness, it was a **tool.**

Kylo Ren drew upon that fear, pulling at it until it overwhelmed him. He fell to his hands and knees as it washed over him, plunging him into icy water that stole his breath as he screamed. The feeling of hot breath and staring green eyes pressed in on him from all sides and then…

His senses expanded to the entire ship. He could Feel the creature, the monster, the… the Hound? It bounded through the corridors like it owned them. It had his scent, it knew him as Prey. It tasted his fear and purred. It hungered and it would gladly taste his flesh if he let it. Saliva dripped from its titanium fangs, drool wiped away with alabaster claws. Blood dripped from its crest down its back in spots and spatters that splashed all through the ship. Green eyes peered into darkness it saw as clear as day.

The yellow emergency lights made a sudden sickening sense. Yellow flickers lit up the corridors in ways only this creature could see. The iridescent lettering on all the door plates shone in ways Kylo would never experience. The corridors were the wrong width, the creature’s exact turning radius! Even the ship’s gravity was off, not enough to notice but just enough to make this hunt easier…

The _Maletrix_ was not designed for any human. It was designed for the creature that hunted him.

Master Snoke meant for this to happen. His Master knew this creature laired in this ship and sent Kylo in alone armed only with his unstable lightsabre!

This was another test. It had to be. Hadn’t he proven himself yet?!

In his indignance he almost forgot the creature. At least until he saw himself through its eyes.

Kylo opened his eyes.

He wasn’t sure what he saw. A Shadow in darkness. Pale skin shining in red light. Green eyeshine in the night. Something humanoid but not? Blood stained its snout and titanium teeth flashed. The Shadow of a tail waved behind it and then it sprang forward.

Kylo reached out to every fractal around himself and opened them all. He didn't care which direction he threw the creature, only that he took it off it's feet. Then he was on his feet and running again. To the Void with ‘honor’, after this he would always carry a blaster. Until then he did the only thing he could do as he shot to his feet and ran blindly through empty corridors.

He had the horrible feeling that this creature knew the full layout of this ship. The _Maletrix_ was built for it, after all, surely the creature was toying with him. Kylo swore under his breath as he followed twisting and turning corridors, trusting in the Force to get him to the safety of the hangar bay. He’d accept whatever punishment Master Snoke had for him for running, at least he knew his master wouldn’t eat him.

He kept his senses open, following a Path the Force showed him. He met no monsters on his way, the corridors empty and red as though the _Maletrix_ wasn’t the hunting ground of some creature of darkness that hungered and hissed. The bright blue lights of the hangar were a welcome sight and he nearly melted in relief. There was his shuttle right there! And he wasn’t alone but this time it was okay! Some human in a teal officer’s uniform stood at attention next to his ship.

Kylo Ren pulled himself up to his full height and he took a deep breath. His fear twisted in on itself and turned outward, an aura of menace that left most humans mewling in his wake as they scrambled to obey his commands. He approached with an even step, his own cloak flowing behind him like a Shadow in the Force.

The officer did not wilt. He did not wince. Instead he narrowed his eyes in disdain. “I trust the _Maletrix_ meets your satisfaction.”

Kylo had no idea what to say to that. This human should be on his knees wetting himself in terror! The officer’s disdain gave nothing away. A smug pride leaked from him in the Force, the pride of a fool who had no idea what really lurked in that ship. Kylo honestly considered leaving the officer here as a sacrifice for the monster to feed upon. Surely the First Order wouldn’t miss a single errant Major.

“Of course,” Kylo said. He couldn’t help the sarcasm that dripped from his words but it was either that or let the fear crash out of him into shaky relief. He refused to show anything resembling weakness to this or any officer of the First Order. He was stronger than that.

Perhaps he should have taken the advice of his Knights and fashioned a helmet before this. It would have been helpful when faced with foolish officers. He strode onto his shuttle, not even caring when the officer followed.

The ramp retracted and Kylo Ren dropped into the pilot’s seat in relief. He was safe. He’d escaped whatever that monster was.

“I imagine the Supreme Leader is awaiting your report,” the officer said.

Kylo glanced back at this officer. First Order officers were almost all the same: old Imperials who thought highly of themselves because they’d managed to escape the courts of the New Republic. But this one seemed younger than that, much younger. Shockingly red hair sat carefully styled underneath a regulation cap. His skin seemed so pale he might not have skin pigment, except for the dark freckles that spattered over his nose and cheeks. Must be a spacer, then, someone raised out here in the Imperial Remnant. 

It didn’t matter. Right now getting off of this ship mattered. Reporting his failure to his master mattered. He opened the holocall to Master Snoke. He would announce his departure then offer to present himself for punishment in person. Yes, that would do nicely.

Master Snoke’s hologram flickered to life before him as the officer stepped close, right behind him.

A sudden spike of triumph was the only warning he had before a hand gripped his hair and yanked his head back. He felt sharp fangs at his throat and heard his master’s gleeful laughter abruptly cut out.

Kylo Ren bodily shoved the creature off of him and heard its jaws snap closed, whatever this thing was that wore a Major’s uniform. He growled as it bared its titanium teeth, far too many teeth, and it laughed.

“I believe that means I win,” the creature gloated, wide black eyes shining green in the shadows of the shuttle.

Kylo raised a hand and squeezed. The creature hissed in shock as its throat began to collapse under the Force choke. That hiss turned to a low growl, one continuous exhale that kept the airway open despite Kylo’s efforts. The creature fell to its knees as its air slowly left it. Kylo stood up and pulled his lightsabre. The blade crackled and the emitter sparked but he didn’t care. He pointed the warbling tip at the creature’s throat as he let go of the choke.

“What are you?” Kylo demanded.

The creature hissed and spat, coughing and gasping. It kept its black eyes on his but stayed on the floor, drawing itself up into a crouch that could far too easily turn into a pounce. “I am Major Armitage Hux. I’m an Arkanan.”

Arkanan. The name came to him within memories from before. Angry Senators all arguing about a planet called Arkanis. Humans who allowed themselves to evolve like animals. Monsters in the darkness, even his mo-- even Leia called them that. ‘A world of monsters could only produce monsters.’ Then the memory was gone.

“You must be the apprentice,” Hux said. He looked Kylo up and down, sniffing audibly. Scenting him. “The Supreme Leader never mentioned he’d taken a prey animal as his apprentice.”

Kylo growled, pushing the glowing tip of the sabre closer. Hux’s skin seared red from the heat, the beginnings of a plasma burn. Hux growled low in warning, the growl almost covering a low hiss of pain. He pulled the blade back, point made.

“This ship was designed by me, to my specifications,” Hux said, titanium teeth visibly bared in a sneer or maybe a leer. “The emergency lights are set for my eyes. The simulation holograms are built for my senses. The stormtrooper levels are structured for my command philosophies. Every Resurgent-class ship in the First Order is mine. It’s mine and so is everything and everyone stationed on it.”

“What are you going to do, pee on me to prove your point?” Kylo snapped.

Hux snorted. “There’s nothing so transitory as urine in the rain.”

Kylo pulled back, sitting down in the pilot’s chair. His sabre spat and the blade warbled before it sparked and finally failed. The sabre wouldn’t activate again, at least not until the overheated crystal could vent properly and the power coupling replaced. Again.

Hux took a deep breath, sighing in relief as he rubbed the red blotch on his neck. He got to his feet and stretched, his breath leaving his throat in a purr. He kept his eyes on Kylo as he moved slowly, deliberately, and took the co-pilot’s seat.

Kylo bristled as he realized Hux moved like someone trying not to scare away a prey animal. He was no one’s prey! Least of all this skinny pale monster that… had tracked him all over the ship. Hmph.

“Well, Apprentice, do you have a name?”

Kylo sulked. “You bit me.”

“I did,” Hux said conversationally. “It was the Supreme Leader’s idea. He arranged for a hunt, predator against predator. You’re very trusting of someone in a uniform. I recommend against it.”

“I bet.”

“There are Imperials here who would like nothing more than to see everyone around them burn along with the New Republic. Their Empire fell and they want it back. They’re too old, fat, and soft to realize it died and they were better off dead with it.”

Kylo Ren found his sulk turning to something like interest. This creature, this Major Armitage Hux, he showed no fear admitting this. He considered the Arkanan again and realized… “How old are you?” Kylo asked.

“Twenty six.”

Every other officer under the age of thirty was a petty officer, at best a lieutenant. “What do you know of the planet below us?”

Kylo did not expect the depth of purr that issued from Hux’s throat. “Ilum is my design,” he purred. “My engineers construct it. My scientists control it. My will determines its fate.” His eyes raked up and down Kylo’s form and Kylo felt for a moment that the creature was about to pounce. “That’s why you’re here.”

Kylo Ren did not like this. He didn’t like how Master Snoke kept him in the dark about so many things. “And what have you heard?” Kylo demanded. “Why am I here.”

“Kyber is alive,” Hux said, and his hunger seemed to change direction. Kylo no longer felt like prey but he still watched the creature hunt regardless. “It has a will of its own. Ilum resists us. It may even know what we demand of it. But we will make that demand and the planet will yield.”

“How?”

Hux stood up from the co-pilot’s seat and Kylo did not know how to feel or what to think as the Arkanan seemed to drape over the pilot’s seat. Long-fingered hands combed through his hair as hot breath whispered in his ear. Teeth clicked and a tongue tasted and Kylo could smell an animal’s musk mixed with the sharp ozone note of the creature’s Shadow. “I have a Sith ritual,” Hux purred. “Written by Lord Vader’s own private tutor in the Sith arts. Specifically designed for Ilum and what we demand. I have the Knights of Ren at my disposal. I have my own resources as well. But I need more. The Supreme Leader even offered me his apprentice, but I had to earn that right. Again.”

Kylo turned to glare at the creature whispering in his ear. “The Knights of Ren are mine!” he snapped. “I killed Ren, the Knights follow me now. You have nothing.”

Hux’s hand clenched hard in Kylo’s hair and he gasped. Hux pulled his head back exposing the neck. “I also have the right to kill with impunity,” Hux warned. “And the right to eat my kills. The Supreme Leader asssked I not kill you. It may have been a command. The lassst time I disobeyed him I earned that right. Shall we see what I earn this time?”

Kylo felt breath on his neck, a rough tongue laving up his neck. Wide broad licks tickled his skin, scraping and scratching with the slimy feeling of saliva dripping down his skin. Hux’s purr reverberated through his whole body, making it hard to focus on the Force to save himself. Instead he reached up to grab at Hux’s shoulders. His fingers found the oily hair of Hux’s crest; he gripped that crest and pulled to try and peel the Arkakan off of his neck.

Hux paused mid-lick and Kylo heard a thought projected. It wasn’t the touch of a Force-sensitive mind, it was simply the loud single thought of a Null who had dealt with Force-users before.

‘Had enough?’

Kylo pushed Hux away, refusing to look at the Arkanan who purred with pupils blown wide and drool dripping down his chin to darken his teal uniform.

“You killed Ren,” Hux said. He wiped ineffectively at the drool on his chin, flushing his own spots.

Kylo could see spots like flecks of blood flushing on Hux’s face. At least that part of the Shadow’s image was true. “I did,” he said, growling under his breath. “He was my ‘good death’. Now the Knights are mine, not yours.”

“We’ll see won’t we, Ren.” Hux purred, his smile almost sweet were it not for all of the teeth. “The Supreme Leader saw fit to command Ren to his death. Why would the Knights change now?”

Kylo bared his own teeth and snarled.

It did not have the desired effect. Instead the Arkanan kept purring, even curling closer so the rumble vibrated through Kylo’s frame. On one hand, he wasn’t being scolded or punished for allowing himself to sound like an animal the way he would have been before. On the other, Hux was not intimidated in the slightest. Worse, he seemed to be familiar with the Knights.

Who or what was this Arkanan, really?

Kylo Ren wasn’t sure he would like the answer. But he wasn't sure he had a choice.


End file.
